BACKGROUND: Most youth asthma apps are not designed with parent and clinician use in mind, and rarely is the app development process informed by parent or clinician input. OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to generate formative data on the use, attitudes, and preferences for asthma mHealth app features among parents and clinicians, the important stakeholders who support adolescents with asthma and promote adolescent self-management skills. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods study from 2013 to 2014 employing a user-centered design philosophy to acquire feedback from a convenience sample of 20 parents and 6 clinicians...

With rising smartphone ownership, mobile health applications (mHealth apps) have the potential to support high-need, high-cost populations in managing their health. While the number of available mHealth apps has grown substantially, no clear strategy has emerged on how providers should evaluate and recommend such apps to patients. Key stakeholders, including medical professional societies, insurers, and policy makers, have largely avoided formally recommending apps, which forces patients to obtain recommendations from other sources...

Ready or not, the Internet of things (IoT) is here. No longer just a buzz term, it'll continue to grow at an unprecedented pace over the next few years expecting to reach over 25 billion connected devices by 2020. History shows us that most fast growth technology solutions focus on solving business problems first and security is an afterthought. Unfortunately, IoT is following the same trend. Most IoT devices, apps, and infrastructure were developed without security in mind and are likely going to become targets of hackers...

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is frequent in older people and a precursor for morbidity and hospitalisation; furthermore low intake and weight loss during and after hospitalisation is well-described. Such patients are often excluded from technology projects on account of lack of skills. This is a barrier for their access to many current and future health care offers. OBJECTIVES: To test the acceptability, feasibility and preliminary efficacy of technology-supported energy- and protein-enforced homedelivered meals for older patients discharged from hospital...

BACKGROUND: There are a growing number of mobile phone apps available to support people in taking their medications and to improve medication adherence. However, little is known about how these apps differ in terms of features, quality, and effectiveness. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to systematically review the medication reminder apps available in the Australian iTunes store and Google Play to assess their features and their quality in order to identify high-quality apps...

INTRODUCTION: Management of lung cancer remains a challenge. Although clinical and biological patient data are crucial for cancer research, these data may be missing from registries and clinical trials. Biobanks provide a source of high-quality biological material for clinical research; however, linking these samples to the corresponding patient and clinical data is technically challenging. We describe the mobile Lung Cancer Care system (mLCCare), a novel tool which integrates biological and clinical patient data into a single resource...

BACKGROUND: Acute pesticide poisoning (APP) is known to cause serious injuries to end users globally but the magnitude of this problem in Tanzania is not well known. This study aimed to determine the extent and pattern of underreporting of APP in Tanzania to inform the development of a surveillance system and appropriate interventions. METHODS: This study integrates findings from two recent Tanzanian studies. A household survey established the proportion of poisoned farmers in a typical rural area who reported to hospital for a pesticide poisoning...

OBJECTIVES: The overall aim of this study was to determine the effect of introducing a smartphone pain app, for both Android and iPhone devices that enables chronic pain patients to assess, monitor, and communicate their status to their providers. METHODS: This study recruited 105 chronic pain patients to use a smartphone pain app and half of the subjects (N=52) had 2-way messaging available through the app. All subjects completed baseline measures and were asked to record their progress every day for 3 months, with the opportunity to continue for 6 months...

In our recent Asthma Mobile Health Study (AMHS), thousands of asthma patients across the country contributed medical data through the iPhone Asthma Health App on a daily basis for an extended period of time. The collected data included daily self-reported asthma symptoms, symptom triggers, and real time geographic location information. The AMHS is just one of many studies occurring in the context of now many thousands of mobile health apps aimed at improving wellness and better managing chronic disease conditions, leveraging the passive and active collection of data from mobile, handheld smart devices...

Blood coagulation time is an important factor to consider for postoperative and cardiac disorder patients who have been prescribed anticoagulant coagulant medications. This chapter describes a patient self-management system for assessment of blood coagulation times and determining appropriate anticoagulant dosages using a test strip device and the Coagu app. This app can also be used as a patient reminder of treatment times and to monitor treatment and effects over time.

Much of the published works assessing the reliability of smartphone goniometer apps (SG) have poor generalizability since the reliability was assessed in healthy subjects. No research has established the values for standard error of measurement (SEM) or minimal detectable change (MDC) which have greater clinical utility to contextualize the range of motion (ROM) assessed using the SG. This research examined the test-retest reproducibility, concurrent validity, SEM, and MDC values for the iPhone goniometer app (i-Goni; June Software Inc...

INTRODUCTION: Mobile technology is one of the latest extensions of technological innovations that can be integrated into medical education. With the aid of these devices, students learn faster outside the classroom by having quick access to the internet and easy retrieval of required health related learning resources to keep alongside of recent trend and development. In medicine practice one has to continuously update his/her medical knowledge and mobile learning will serve as a tool for self-directed learning...

OBJECTIVE: Seeking sexual health information online is common, and provision of mobile medical applications (apps) for STIs is increasing. Young people, inherently at higher risk of STIs, are avid users of technology, and apps could be appealing sources of information. We undertook a comprehensive review of content and accuracy of apps for people seeking information about STIs. METHODS: Search of Google Play and iTunes stores using general and specific search terms for apps regarding STIs and genital infections (except HIV), testing, diagnosis and management, 10 September 2014 to 16 September 2014...

BACKGROUND: Mobile apps are an evolving trend in the medical field. To date, few apps in an oncological context exist. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to analyze the attitude of health care professionals (HCPs) toward telemedicine, mHealth, and mobile apps in the field of oncology. METHODS: We developed and conducted an online survey with 24 questions evaluating HCPs' general attitude toward telemedicine and patients using medical mobile apps. Specific questions on the possible functionality for patients and the resulting advantages and disadvantages for both the patients' and HCPs' daily clinical routine were evaluated...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study is to understand and appraise app use by medical students during their clerkships. METHODS: Following Creighton University IRB approval, a voluntary and anonymous paper-based, 15-question survey was distributed to third-year medical students. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel. RESULTS: Of 112 medical students available, 76.7% (86) participated in the survey. All participants owned a smartphone or tablet with 84...

OBJECTIVES: Mobile technology for childhood asthma can provide real-time data to enhance care. What real-time adherence information clinicians want, how they may use it, and if the data meet their clinical needs has not been fully explored. Our goal was to determine whether pediatric primary care and pulmonary clinicians believe a sensor-based mobile intervention is useful in caring for patients with asthma. METHODS: We recruited participants from 3 urban, primary care and 1 pulmonary practice from July to September 2015 in Hartford, CT...

BACKGROUND: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) continue to be a major public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly in Swaziland, which has the highest HIV prevalence in this region. A wide range of strategies and interventions have been used to promote behavior change, though almost all such interventions have involved mass media. Therefore, innovative behavior change strategies beyond mass media communication are urgently needed...

INTRODUCTION: One of the aims of Evidence-Based Medicine is to improve quality and appropriateness of care by the expedition of the knowledge transfer process. Computerized Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) are computer programs that provide alerts to the prescribing doctor directly at the moment of medical examination. In fact, alerts are integrated within the single patient electronic health record. CDSS based on the best available and updated evidence and guidelines may be an efficient tool to facilitate the transfer of the latest results from clinical research directly at the bedside, thus supporting decision-making...

BACKGROUND: The proliferation of mobile devices and emergence of interoperable 'mHealth' apps is accelerating development and deployment of patient-facing risk assessments in primary care. The present study describes a user-centered design and an agile development approach to creation of an app for assessing lungfunction as part of a randomized controlled trial for the dentification of chronic obstructive lung disease in primary care. METHOD: Seventeen patients recruited from a hospital-based, ambulatory family medicine clinic agreed to be videotaped while using the app, Lung Age, on a first-generation iPad prior to their provideR encounter...